


The Story of Kit Como

by CitricApples



Series: The Land of Soktropica [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-03-06 10:09:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18848914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CitricApples/pseuds/CitricApples
Summary: “I’m Kit, Kit Como! I, uh...I’m building a house in the lake!”When an adventurous duo spot a kid hanging out in a lake, they don't expect much to come from it. Instead, what they get is a friend for life and a story they will all remember.Follow the simple tale of Kit Como, as they charge their way into the world and stumble through life's complexities."Do you trust me?"





	1. The Kid in the Lake

**Author's Note:**

> So. This was supposed to be a one-shot where the entire story was told in one chapter. Instead this ended up as a 5200+ MONSTER of words...and this is only the first chapter.
> 
> Good job, Kit. You have sucked me into your land of random rules and subtle minecraft logic. I am your creator and yet you took over and made yourself a force to be reckoned with.
> 
> Enjoy the story.

The first time the duo saw the kid, the younger adventurer had just been curious about something moving around in the water. He had called out to the figure, causing whatever it was to notice the pair and start approaching. The figure - who couldn’t have been older than a human teen - had swam across the lake and clambered up onto the shore to join them, surprise in their eyes and a relatively-friendly-rather-excited smile gracing their features. The kid must not have been used to seeing other people.

“Uh, hi!” they greeted, sounding slightly breathless. A grey sleeveless hoodie that was much too big for them hugged their body, covering a light blue t-shirt and dark shorts. Brown sandals were all that covered their feet and a blue bandana was tied haphazardly underneath messy, dark locks. Hands in brown fingerless gloves fiddled with a violet pendant that hung around their neck - the purple looking mishapenly out of place surrounded by all the blue.

One of the first things the duo noticed was that, despite having just climbed out of a lake, the kid was completely dry. This didn’t seem to bother them in the slightest.

“I’m Kit, Kit Como! I, uh...I’m building a house in the lake!”

~

When the older adventurer, a skilled archer, found out where Kit was staying while they built, she wasn’t happy in the slightest.

“It’s only temporary,” Kit tried to explain, scratching at the back of their neck while the archer scrutinised the tiny shack and the other, a budding mage, dug around in their stores. “When you’re building your own house, you know, it doesn’t matter much. I just need a bed for the night and somewhere to keep my stuff safe from the weather…”

That really was all they had, it appeared, as the archer only saw some rough bedding and a chest in the shabby wooden shack, which looked as if it had just been set up in a day. Enough to hide from rain and wind and keep warm on cold nights, but nothing particularly comfortable.

“I don’t think…”

“Besides, when I finish my new place, it’s gonna be grand!” Kit exclaimed. “It’s underground, so I can dig it out and get more space, and underwater you don’t really need to worry about bad weather, you know? And I can decorate and make it all cosy to live in...”

“Sure, but right now you’re living in a shack,” she pointed out, interrupting the excited kid. “And I don’t like the thought that my neighbour is living like this if I can do anything about it.”

For a moment, Kit looked crestfallen. “I...I can go stay in the village, I guess, but that’s pretty far from here and I’d have to make the journey everyday, and it seems like an awful long way to move stuff-”

“Why don’t you stay with us?” the mage suggested, yelling from where he was poking around inside Kit’s chest of belongings. “We got a really cool treehouse pretty close to here, and I’m sure we’ve got room for another to stick around. Actually, we were just heading back there when I noticed you.”

Kit looked back to the archer, unsure but clearly almost convinced. In return, she gave them an inviting smile.

“Why not? We’ve got the space.”

Giving one last glance back to the lake and their shabby old shack, Kit gave the pair a decisive nod.

~

Kit found themself spending their days working in the lake and their nights hanging with the duo in their (actually rather impressive) treehouse complex. When asked how they built the place, the mage simply grinned and said “Magic!”, accompanied by jazz hands and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“With a lot of time and hard work,” the archer supplied afterwards. “You know, your room was all we had in the beginning.”

Kit’s ‘room’ (although they didn’t like to call it _theirs_ , it felt too invading somehow) was a repurposed storage shed that stood by the base of the tree that the rest of the treehouse was built around. Refusing to take any more charity than they thought was necessary, the room was left decked out with Kit’s own bedding and chest from their old living space, plus a couple of boxes that the duo couldn’t find any room for elsewhere. It was a bit bland, but just like the old shack, Kit only saw it as temporary. When they finished their underwater home, they’d be able to spruce up the place to their heart’s content, without feeling like they were intruding on the duo’s lives.

Still, they found that they enjoyed the mealtime jokes, the mage’s antics and the archer’s stories. It was nice, having other people around to talk to and not being alone all the time. Maybe, when they finished their project, they would miss this.

~

Sometimes, they needed a break.

“You should come out with us today!” the mage suggested, grinning at the thought. “We’re just gonna go and find some more food, nothing exciting, but y’know. It’s the experience that counts, right?”

“I don’t have any proper weapons, though,” Kit pointed out. All they had was the stuff they got from the village when they left, and those tools were more for building than offering any kind of protection.

“You can take some of my old stuff,” the mage replied, shrugging off the concern as he meandered over to their weapon stores and dug around. After a couple seconds of searching, he found what he was looking for and pulled out a battered-looking sword with a flourish, presenting it to Kit. “Take this, I don’t need it anymore.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. Maybe I can enchant it for you later.” He handed over the sword with a wink. “And, uh, let’s get you some head protection as well. Apples are surprisingly dangerous if you apply gravity…”

Kit chuckled a bit, then stopped. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Speaking from experience, Kit.”

“Oh.”

The mage smirked and chucked a simple leather helmet their way, before gesturing to the sword. “You wanna try it out?”

Hesitantly, Kit slashed at the air with the sword, getting a feel for the weapon. It was light in their hand, with surprising agility for something that looked so worn down, and something about it just felt right.

“Good, right? That one was always one of my favourites.” He walked over and took the helmet from their other hand, placing it on their head securely. “Wanna name it?”

“Um…” Kit paused, giving the sword a once over. They didn’t usually name their tools. “Mob...iss? Mobiss?”

The mage grinned. “Where’d that come from?”

“I dunno,” Kit shrugged. “Just the first thing that came to mind, I guess.”

“Well then,” the mage slung an arm around their shoulders. “Kit, Mobiss. Let’s go on an adventure!”

~

Kit was chewing their way through breakfast one morning when the treehouse got a visitor.

“Go away,” the archer commanded the moment she saw who was standing at the base of the tree. Venom had filled her voice in a way that Kit had never heard before, and it sent chills down their spine. The visitor put her hands up, as if she were surrendering.

“Calm yourself, I’m not here to do anything you don’t want,” she said, a smile on her face that Kit thought didn’t look too genuine.

“Good. Go away.” With that, the archer tried to slam the door on the visitor, growling slightly when she stopped the door with her foot. She winced a bit from the pain but still seemed to be smiling, and Kit saw the mage place a hand on his sword out of the corner of their eye.

“Just here with a delivery,” she claimed, pushing the door back open before looking past the archer and into the room, finally spotting Kit, who was now fiddling with their pendant. “Oh, who’s your new friend?”

The archer moved, blocking Kit from the visitor’s view. “Don’t mind them.”

“Aw, you kidnap ‘em or something?” the visitor asked, a pout on her face that seemed absolutely faked. The mage, sensing conflict (and recognising the archer’s anger), decided that now would be the best time to pull Kit out of the room.

They caught one final snippet of the conversation before they left the room.

“Don’t you ever think of doing _anything_ to Kit.”

On the first floor of the treehouse, the mage let Kit go and rubbed a hand over his eyes.

“Who was that?” Kit asked, worried for their friends. The mage immediately spun to confront them, making Kit take a step back in surprise.

“Don’t get involved with her, alright?” he said, the serious tone sounding unfamiliar with his voice. “I mean it. _She_ is the partner of this scientist, and the two of them are...sketchy at best. Never trust them. Promise me you’ll never trust them.”

“I…”

“Promise me!”

“I promise I’ll never trust them,” Kit said, although they hadn’t actually talked to the visitor and didn’t know who this scientist was.

Still, the visitor’s off-smile stuck in their mind, and they decided that sticking to their promise would probably be for the best.

~

“What is all this stuff?”

“Stop shaking that!”

Unperturbed, Kit put down the small vial of _something_ that they had been messing around with. The mage swiftly picked the vial back up and transferred it to a higher shelf - out of Kit’s reach.

“ _This stuff_ is everything you need to be an amazing wielder of magic,” he boasted, turning back to Mobiss, which was sitting on some sort of enchantment bench. That was what Kit was calling it, anyway. They didn’t know jack about magic. “I can make all sorts of cool stuff, and some of it’s actually useful!”

He’d finally gotten around to enchanting Mobiss, just as he’d suggested on that day some time ago. The sword hadn’t seen much action in the time Kit had it - mostly blamed on the fact that they were a builder, not a fighter, and normally just ran away from the threat - but it had still somehow grown on them enough to want to get it strengthened in case they ran into any real trouble. Now, the mage was adding the final touches.

“And, uh, a water buff, ‘cause you’re spending all your time in that damn lake…” he muttered, mostly to himself, as he sprinkled some weird plant onto the blade’s surface and held his hands over it. A couple of mumbled words that definitely weren’t English later, and Mobiss shimmered slightly as the mage picked it up and handed it back. “Cool. Now it should work just as well underwater as it does in air.”

“Thanks,” Kit said, studying their newly-enchanted sword fondly. They were about to bid their farewells and head back to work when they were stopped by a hand on their shoulder.

“Um, take this,” the mage said, placing something into their hand. When Kit looked at it, they noticed it was a crystal on some sort of pin.

“What is it?”

“Just a little charm. It’s supposed to enhance your magic ability, make your power stronger or whatever.”

“I don’t do magic, though.”

At this, the mage chuckled, patting Kit on the shoulder. “Maybe you’ll be surprised.”

~

Before they knew it, Kit’s underwater project was complete.

“Guess I’m moving out then, guys,” they announced that night. The archer seemed proud of them, having seen how much work Kit had put themself through over the past couple of months. The mage, on the other hand, had taken to over-dramatically crying.

“I don’t believe it! The kid’s grown up and is gonna move out!” he whined, draping himself over Kit’s shoulders. “I’m gonna miss yooooou…”

“Get off me, crybaby,” Kit said, shoving at the mage who stubbornly clung on tight. “The lake is literally two minutes away, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“So you’re gonna be sticking around, huh?” the archer prompted, raising an eyebrow. “Because I know you used to believe that your hanging around with us was just gonna be ‘temporary’.”

Kit flushed at the callout, chuckling sheepishly as they considered their answer, although all three of them knew what it would be. With two months of adventuring, magic and idle chatter in between all the building, Kit had found themselves growing attached to the pair, unable to imagine living without their constant presence in their life. There really was only one answer.

“Of course I’m sticking around!”

~

The next day, the duo decided to follow Kit down to the lake with all their belongings, intending to assist with their settling in to their new place. The problem only arose when they got to the lake’s edge.

“Um.” Peering into the water, the archer gulped. For a simple lake, the water was _deep_ , and even as they searched the pond, she realised that something was missing. “Kit, where...where _is_ your house?

“Huh?” Kit perked up from where they were watching the mage struggle to carry an enchanted waterproof chest. They wandered over, absentmindedly fiddling with their pendant. “It’s, um, down there. Underneath that rock ledge, see?”

“What?” The archer studied the water, scanning its contents for the ‘rock ledge’ that Kit had tried to point out. When she finally found it, her heart stopped for a second.

The ledge was by the bottom of the lake.

“Kid, we...we won’t be able to get down there, we’re not good enough swimmers. We might drown.”

“Excuse you, I am an excellent...I can swim!” the mage interrupted, before holding something out to the archer. “Besides, since I figured we’d be going underwater, I grabbed these before we left. As long you’re wearing it, there’ll be no need to worry about drowning - you just gotta worry about actually swimming there.”

Cautiously, the archer took what was being handed to her - it looked like a necklace, not unlike Kit’s pendant, except with a flat chain and blue stone that almost seemed to glow as she pulled it on. The familiar rush of magic ran through her and she took in a breath, about to say something when a splash interrupted her words.

Kit was stood on the water’s edge, laughing their head off as the mage spluttered and thrashed about in the water. “Not cool!” he shouted once he had realised that he was still in shallow water and could easily stand. Around his neck was his own necklace, and the archer noticed that he seemed entirely dry, again not unlike Kit was on the day they first met them. “I just wanted to give you yours…”

“I’ve been here enough times to know I don’t need it,” Kit remarked cheekily, grabbing one of the waterproof bags of miscellaneous items. With the sun beating down on them, the archer noticed for the first time that Kit’s dark hair had a slight blue tint to it, as if it were made to match their clothes - and yet it still looked completely natural. “And I’ve been living with you guys for long enough that _you_ should know this too.”

With that, they took a running start and jumped, splashing easily into the lake behind where the mage had been. The archer took this as a sign to do the same, taking one of the lighter bags (for safety) and gently wallowing into the lake, expecting to get immediately drenched. Instead, she found herself completely dry, and heaved a sigh of relief.

“I guess that boy does sometimes know what he’s doing,” she muttered to herself, glancing back at the mage before diving down and following Kit, who was already halfway down the lake.

~

“What are you?”

For a second, Kit didn’t respond, assuming that the mage was once again talking to his weird potion stuffs, but when more than a second of no movement passed they looked up to see him staring straight at them.

“What?” they started. “What d’you mean?”

“I mean like...human,” he replied, turning back to whatever he was doing now that he knew he had Kit’s attention. “Like, are you human? Or something else?”

Again, Kit was caught by surprise, and for a few moments said nothing, mostly because they didn’t know what to say.

When the mage turned back to Kit, they were staring contemplatively at a collection of vials, lost in thought as one hand loosely held their pendant.

“I...I think I’m human,” they finally decided to say, still not looking directly at the mage. He paused, thinking of their underwater home, the way that water never seemed to affect them, how natural they seemed to work in the lake.

“You think?”

“Well, if I’m not, then...I don’t know what else I could be.”

~

One quiet day, when the duo was off doing something else Kit wasn’t needed for, they decided to wander around and explore the places they hadn’t seen before. With all of their time being spent on their home project, Kit hadn’t done as much exploring as their friends, sticking to venturing around the lake, the treehouse and the village they grew up in. Having nothing else to do anymore, though, meant that exploring new places was much more appealing than before; so, with Mobiss in hand, they set off, away from the treehouse and towards the unknown.

Until voices stopped them.

“I’m telling you, mate, I’m getting close to gold! Just a bit more-”

“A couple specks of copper is _not_ ‘close to gold’, you idiot.”

“Oi! It’s...they’re both metals!”

Caught by surprise, Kit found themself standing frozen as two figures walked over the hill and into view - one completely unknown, the other a little more familiar. Alarm bells rang in the back of their head, trying to convince them to turn around and make their way back into the lake, but for some reason they didn’t move.

“Both unreactive, both conduct heat and stuff, really the only difference is how shiny it is- oh, hello there!”

Kit only stared as the visitor from before changed course to approach them, accompanied by someone they could only assume was her ‘partner’, although they couldn’t quite recall what the mage had called them before. On reflex, their grip on Mobiss tightened.

“Look, it’s the kid I was telling you about, the one who was with the tree huggers?” the visitor was saying, gesturing at them wildly. The ‘partner’ gave them a once over, taking note of the sword clenched in their fist.

“Feisty one, are they?” they asked, a gruffness to their voice that Kit had never heard from anyone before. They took a step back.

“Don’t think they trust you, mate,” the visitor muttered. Her ‘partner’ raised an eyebrow at that.

“No?” they said, starting to walk toward Kit. They backed up even more, tripping slightly and not noticing the small pin that fell out of their pocket. The ‘partner’ did, though, and stooped down to pick it up. “Kid, come on. Do you trust me?”

“Not at all,” Kit said, staring apprehensively at the pin that was now being held in front of them - they forgot that they had that.

“Interesting little trinket you got here,” the ‘partner’ murmured, loud enough for all three of them to hear. “Bet it was from that damn mage. Here, catch.” They threw it over and Kit grabbed it out of the air, holding it to their chest. “I’d recommend you wear that, you know. Never know when a bit of magic could come in handy.”

“That’s rich, coming from you,” the visitor barked, causing her ‘partner’ to chuckle. “But, you know, Kit, not trusting someone you’ve never met before because someone told you not to? Not cool.”

“Can I go now?” Kit asked, shifting from foot to foot as they looked between the two figures.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” the visitor waved them off. She was smiling, for whatever reason, and it looked more genuine than the face she was pulling back at the treehouse, if a little off-kilter. As unexpected as it was, it didn’t put Kit at as much unease, which was nice. “Don’t let us keep you from doing whatever you were doing.”

“...Thanks.” With that, Kit turned around and started running off in a random direction, almost desperate to get away. They didn’t get very far, though, until a panicked voice yelled out.

“Wait! Kit!”

They stopped, part in fear and part in annoyance, but didn’t turn back around to face the pair, instead glaring at the hill in front of them. Some stubborn part of them didn’t want to see the two of them again for a long time.

“Don’t go that way,” the ‘partner’ said, their voice no longer holding the laid-back tone that it had a second ago. “ _Please._ There’s something very dangerous over there and I don’t think you’ll want any part of it.”

Kit paused. For all intents and purposes, they didn’t want to listen to anything they said; but at the same time, they couldn’t ignore how desperate and genuine the ‘partner’ sounded. The visitor, though, looked a weird mix of confused and resigned, which only caused them to hesitate more.

“Is there any reason why?”

“Just _don’t_ , Kit,” they replied. “Please just trust me on this. You don’t have to trust me with anything else but...this is important.”

Staring at the hill ahead of them, Kit sighed. “Fine. Whatever.”

~

Despite having lived in a treehouse for several months, Kit still wasn’t quite used to the towering trees of the forest.

They had joined the duo on a small trip - a ‘quest for the good things in life’, the mage had claimed, which really meant that he was bored - but instead of actively looking for anything useful, they spent their time picking berries off shrubs because it meant that they could stick to lower ground.

“You never know,” they said, when the archer shot a questioning glance at their mouth full of berries. “Berries are tasty, and if we run out of supplies, we’ve got food. And they’re also juicy, so they could help with thirst too, right?”

“Uh, sure,” the mage agreed, although he didn’t actually look that sure. “That’s how berries work. Just don’t poison yourself.”

“I won’t,” Kit said, before looking at the collection of berries in their hand and pocketing them instead of stuffing them into their mouth. They were about to say something else when they noticed that the mage had stopped walking.

“Um?” He was staring upwards. “That cannot be safe.”

Kit followed his gaze up into one of the trees, taking in what he was looking at. To their surprise, they found the archer scaling the tree, already quite high up despite the small amount of time that had passed.

“Don’t worry about me!” she shouted to them, grabbing onto another branch and hauling herself up. “I know what I’m doing. It’s way easier to spot stuff from up here.”

“I can worry about you if I bloody want to!” the mage shouted back, but after a certain look thrown his way from the archer, he just huffed and started wandering deeper into the forest. “Whatever you say, you madman…”

At this, Kit shrugged to themself and turned back to their definitely-not-poisonous berry picking. They had been studying a shrub of curious-looking silver berries by a creek when they heard an odd snap from above.

“Woah!”

It happened in a moment. Kit whipped around, spotting the archer, who was scrabbling for purchase on a single, quickly snapping branch. They shouted out, dropping the berries in their hand and sprinting for the tree, careless of the roots they stumbled on and the thorns that snagged at their ankles. The mage was too far away to get there in time, and it looked like luck wasn’t on Kit’s side either. With their small stature and the height the archer was going to drop from, it was obvious this fall was going to end in injury.

The branch snapped. The archer dropped. The mage screamed, as if he was the one falling, and Kit continued to sprint, thrusting an arm out on instinct as if that would help them go faster.

Some kind of rush went through them then, an unfamiliar feeling that was strengthened by their fear and something unnatural on top of that. They could feel the movement of _something_ nearby, the roar of a desperate and determined wave sounding out behind them.

Just in time, a powerful stream of water rushed out to the archer, forming a net underneath her that she splashed into with a gasp.

In the moments after, the water seemed to disappear into thin air, almost melting into the forest as everything else stood silent. The mage and the drenched-but-unharmed archer were left staring at Kit in wonder-like shock; the kid themself was breathing heavily as they stared at the archer, then their hand, then turned to look back at where the creek they had seen earlier was.

“Are you okay?” they asked shakily when they looked back at the archer. She nodded mutely, staring at Kit’s pendant and noting the way that the purple seemed to glow. Next to it, a familiar crystal was pinned onto their hoodie, sparkling in the light of the pendant.

~

It all made sense, really. They just never really thought about how the way they sometimes liked to lounge about in the lake was unnatural.

The water surrounding Kit was peaceful, a vast contrast to the storm that was currently inside them. They could see their house across from where they were sat; it had taken forever to figure out how to set up an entrance that didn’t flood the area every time they entered, putting blood, sweat and tears into digging out the walls of the lake for days on end. There was no way to see out of the house - in fact it really didn’t look much like anything attractive at all - but they believed that with time and some sort of artistic vision they could make it a true home.

Perhaps it could end up feeling as lived in as the treehouse.

With a huff, Kit stood up and pushed off from the rock they had been perching on, kicking their way upwards. Breaking the water’s surface, they paddled their way to the shore and stepped back onto land, brushing themself off as if it would make any difference.

For a second, they glanced in the direction of the treehouse - _but they could be busy or they’ll have more questions and questions are tiring enough even if you know the answers in the first place_ \- then decidedly turned away, looking over at the hill due west of the lake.

“ _Don’t go that way. Please._ ” That was what the ‘partner’ had told them, back what seemed like ages ago but was really only a couple weeks at most. There had been panic laced through their voice at the time, a sort of desperation that convinced them to stay away then, even though they didn’t quite understand it.

They let their feet carry them forwards, idly fiddling with their pendant.

“ _There’s something very dangerous over there and I don’t think you’ll want any part of it._ ” Mobiss seemed to hum in its sheath, a reminder of its presence and how Kit had hidden behind it for protection many a time now. Whatever dangerous thing there was - whatever dangerous thing that _could be there_ \- they would probably be able to fend for themself long enough to either conquer the threat or get to safety without much trouble. Everyone may have been calling them ‘kid’, but Kit knew they were stronger than they seemed. And what did that gruff-voiced loser know about what they wanted to be part of anyway?

“ _Please just trust me on this. You don’t have to trust me with anything else but...this is important._ ”

Kit stared down at the unassuming field from the top of the hill. It seemed...plain. Empty. There didn’t appear to be any threat at all; suddenly, the confusion on the visitor’s face felt justified. What had the ‘partner’ been so worried about? Even if something dangerous _was_ hidden here, how much threat could it truly hold if it was hidden under layers of grass and mud?

Plus, they promised the mage that they would never trust that odd pair.

_Maybe_ , Kit thought to themself, _the field wasn’t what actually held the danger_. Behind them the lake was still in full view, too close to what was apparently ‘something very dangerous’ for comfort. They had never crossed this hill before, never seen any reason to, and when the ‘partner’ had told them to ‘not go that way’ they had assumed that the danger would be obvious and nearby. Maybe they’d let themself get scared too easily - chances were anything that could hurt them was actually hiding behind the treeline they could see in the distance.

Feeling curious and a little bit braver, they ventured forwards.

The field felt a lot bigger when Kit was walking down it. It seemed to stretch, and while they could always see the hill behind them or the trees in front of them it never seemed as if they were making any progress.

At one time the dirt under their feet seemed to dip, softened as if it had been dug up and poorly replaced, although it didn’t look any different. Kit had tried to shrug it off, marching on towards the trees, but they couldn’t deny the fact that they let out a breath as soon as the ground felt sturdy and natural again.

It was a couple of minutes later when they heard the beeping.

“What…” They turned, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, or at least what it was. It was a trill sound, high and piercing through the still air of the field, that seemed to be coming from behind them. It sounded slightly muffled, as if it were coming from under the earth. It probably was.

“What’s that sound?”

The beeping was getting quicker, slowly but surely, like a timer counting down or a heartbeat rising. Part of Kit wanted to run - the same part that always brought their hand to Mobiss’ handle - but the part of them that wanted to figure out what was happening overrode the other and stopped them from moving.

They had to have triggered something. The beeping was coming from somewhere on this field and nobody else was around as far as they could see; yet all around them was grass and mud, nothing different, nothing unusual.

Their mind flashed back to that patch of dirt, where the ground had felt soft and unsteady under their feet, where it felt like it had been dug up and refilled, as if something had been buried there recently.

And they took off, feet beating harshly against the dirt as they sprinted for the trees, the beeping that was leading up to _something_ getting faster and faster, overtaking their heartbeat until there was just one final tone-

With a resounding blast, Kit screamed as they felt themself flying into the air, chased by dirt until they met the ground.  



	2. Welcome to the Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain pair finds a body in the wreckage, and Kit wakes up in a place they don't recognise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello yes it's been two months and honestly that's about as good it's gonna get unfortunately.
> 
> You may have noticed that the number of predicted chapters has went up from 3 to 4. That's because this part got so long (5600+ words what the) so I decided to scrap the original plan and split it in half. So while this chapter got out earlier, this does mean I have another chapter's worth of work to do...yay.
> 
> Also you may not have noticed but I don't edit these as heavily as I should, so.

“What the hell, man?”

“I heard it! I heard it go off, I swear to god.”

“I think you’re just being paranoid-”

“I’m being serious, that thing was _armed_ , anybody could have triggered it-”

“I’m sure you could have figured out how to diffuse it instead of just _periodically checking up on it_.”

“That’s not how it...works…”

“...Oh my god.”

Standing at the edge of the treeline were two figures, one clad in red and the other in a rundown lab coat, staring at what was once a plain field of grass and dirt. A gaping hole now took over most of the field, piles of mud flung everywhere like someone had taken a giant shovel to the ground and didn’t know what to do with what they dug up. The one in red - an alchemist who liked to pretend she knew what she was doing - simply took in the sight, eyes darting around as her mouth hung open in disbelief.

The other - a scientist who wasn’t afraid of getting messy - hid their face in their hands.

“It’s so bad…” they muttered, eyes screwed shut. “It’s so much _worse_ than I...than I thought it would…”

The alchemist hummed, not knowing how she was supposed to feel. “At least it’s not gone past the hill. Y’know, because of…’cause of the…”

The scientist growled and shook their head, taking in a deep breath before looking back at the carnage in defeat. “Is there anyone down there?”

“I dunno,” replied the alchemist, walking forwards and carefully picking her way towards where the worst of the wreckage was. “Guess we’ll have to find out.”

With a sigh, the scientist followed suit, keeping their eyes on the ground in an effort to ignore what they maybe _could_ have prevented, if only they’d tried a little harder or hadn’t left the inevitable to happen. Kicking at a loose rock, they glanced up to where the bomb had been the last time they’d checked up on it. “What d’you think set it off?”

“Mate, don’t ask me like I know. A bird could have landed on it and flew off. Maybe someone was running across the field and managed to…” The alchemist trailed off, eyes training on something in the distance that looked a bit too blue to be dirt, and a bit too human-like to be any kind of bird. “Um. Uh oh.”

“Uh oh? Uh oh, what?” the scientist echoed, only to watch the alchemist take off towards something. “Did you find something?” They jogged after her, almost tripping over a particularly large mound of mud, bewildered at her lack of answer. When she stopped, they almost ran straight into her back. “What are you looking at? Oh sh-”

The alchemist and the scientist stared at the body in front of them, finding themselves looking at a familiar oversized cardigan and blue-tinted hair.

“That’s Kit,” the scientist said dumbly, starting to hyperventilate. “No. No, no, no, no, _no_!”

“Calm yourself,” the alchemist told them as she approached the body, despite looking a bit nervous herself. “You can panic when we find out the kid doesn’t have a pulse.”

The moments that followed were tense, both holding their breath as the alchemist held her fingers to Kit’s wrist, searching for some semblance of a beat. When she finally found a pulse, she sighed in relief.

“They’re good,” she muttered, getting closer to Kit’s chest. “...Yeah, they’re breathing. It’s all good!”

“It’s not all good!” the scientist exclaimed, reassured enough that they didn’t have a dead kid on their hands that they let themself shout. “The kid’s alive, sure, but they got blown up! _This is not all good_!” Then they froze, a fleeting thought coming to them. “Oh god, the tree huggers are gonna be so _pissed_ -”

“Hey! Stop whining and help me pick up the kid, please!” the alchemist shouted to them, currently trying to heave Kit up by the arms - due to her shorter stature, however, she was clearly struggling.

“What exactly are you planning to do with them?” the scientist asked, moving to help out despite themself. In one swift movement, they took the kid from the alchemist and scooped them into their arms, making it look almost easy.

“Take ‘em back home, what else?” the alchemist said flippantly, as if it was the most obvious suggestion. At the scientist’s skeptical glance, she shrugged. “What? The kid’s alive but they’ve got serious injuries. You wanna rock up to their door with the little guy and just drop ‘em off? They’d probably kill us!”

She was right, of course. The archer and the mage were always on guard the moment either of them stepped anywhere near the treehouse; if they showed up with a close-to-death Kit in their arms, they would both be dead where they stood. The archer had also basically growled at the alchemist to never touch Kit anyway.

“Well, alright,” the scientist muttered, almost reluctantly starting to make their way back towards where their lab was. “But those two are not to know about this, yeah? I like my lab being not-burned-down.”

The alchemist murmured in agreement as she followed them, glancing around at her surroundings as they walked in near silence. At one point her gaze landed on Kit’s face, noticing something out of place. “Holy smokes, look at their eye!”

Confused, the scientist looked to see what their partner was talking about. That’s when they saw it - a scar, running down the eyelid of their closed left eye, still bleeding a bit and definitely deeper than it looked. Faintly, they wondered how they hadn’t seen that before.

“...We can deal with that back home,” they said, completely resigned at this point. “Hopefully it won’t affect them much.” They continued walking, ignoring the concerned gaze of the alchemist.

Whilst it hadn’t been their bomb, this was still their mess - and they were just going to have to deal with it.

~

Wherever they had woken up, it was well-lit, tidy and felt somewhat artificial. The walls surrounding them were light in colour, the bed under them soft to the touch and obviously well-used.

The fact that they could tell this was surprising enough, considering the fact that they had no idea whose bed this could have been.

They couldn’t even remember how they got here, anyway. Or where ‘here’ was. The tubes connecting their hands to machines made them think this was some sort of hospital.

Light footfalls sounded out from somewhere beyond the room, made louder by the lack of sound from anywhere else. They sat up at the noise, rubbing the sleep from their right eye and slightly surprising themself when the room went dark as they did.

There was a bandage wrapped around their left eye. What happened there?

A figure appeared at the door then, short and dressed in a red overcoat that flowed behind her. She seemed distracted by something, not entirely paying attention until she looked up and met their gaze. She froze.

“You’re awake,” she said, simple and stunned. They merely blinked at her, trying to figure out if they knew her. “Oh my god, you’re awake!”

And with that, she ran out the room, shouting down the hall at someone to “get your butt up here, they’re awake! We’re not doomed!”

For a moment, they contemplated getting up to try and follow - but their head sort of hurt and they were still tired and connected to the machines and the bed was just too _soft_ …

Before they knew it, the girl in the overcoat was back, someone in a lab coat trailing behind her. The two were looking at them, regarding them with relief and familiarity, although they weren’t entirely sure if they were supposed to recognise these two at all. They were probably supposed to know them.

They really didn’t.

“Thank god you’re alright, Kit,” the one in the lab coat said, smiling gently at them. “You’ve been out for a couple of days now. If you didn’t wake up, who knows what would’ve happened?”

“Kit?” they repeated back, curious about the name. Maybe they’d misheard and the guy had actually said ‘kid’, although they didn’t think so. Were they ‘Kit’? They had to be.

Why weren’t they sure?

“Yeah,” the overcoat girl said. “Kit. That’s you?”

“I’m Kit.” The name felt right on their tongue, maybe missing something if they thought about it (although they didn’t really want to). Both of the others seemed sure of it anyway, so it had to be true. “Alright.”

“How’re you feeling, Kit?” the one in the lab coat asked, slowly approaching the bed. Kit let them.

“...Tired. Sort of out of it. My head kinda hurts. What happened?”

They must have said something wrong, because the two looked surprised at the question, glancing quickly at each other.

“You don’t remember?” That was the lab coat guy again. They were probably the one who was most in charge between the two.

Kit had to think for a bit before they answered. “No? I don’t think so.”

“Do you know who we are?” the overcoat girl butted in, taking quick steps towards the bed.

“No, sorry.” That they knew for certain. At least, they thought they were certain about that. “I have no idea.”

The lab coat guy seemed to accept this (even though the girl who asked seemed slightly offended, and Kit could maybe guess why), asking them another question that made them freeze.

“Do you remember _anything_?”

It was a loaded question, one that got overcoat girl to pause, one that got Kit to think. And they kept thinking, only because when they came to the true answer, it frightened them more than they wanted to say.

“...No,” came the final whisper, a word that was accompanied by wide eyes and the realisation that they remembered absolutely _nothing at all_.

~

Introductions were swift and to the point - red overcoat girl was an alchemist, lab coat guy was a scientist, and they were currently in one of the bedrooms in their shared lab. ‘The Golden Lab’, as the alchemist had claimed; the scientist, however, tried to argue that they never gave it a name and “we don’t even have much gold anyway, what the hell?”

“I’m getting closer though! Making more!”

“All you’ve done is make more copper.”

“We’ve already had this conversation-”

Kit was healthy enough to be disconnected from the machines and walk around, at least, although they had to keep their eye bandaged for a day or two more.

(It was freaky, when the scientist took it off to change it - they had expected to blink and get a wider field of vision, but instead it just stayed black.)

The alchemist had offered a tour - but when they stepped out of the room and could see how many floors there were in the lab, with the three of them currently being on one of the lower floors, Kit felt the need to decline. They could probably find their way around in their own time.

Still, she insisted that she at least showed them around the bottom two floors, just so they could get their basic bearings. As she did so, she tried to ignore the limp that Kit seemed to not be that bothered by.

When they reached the room that the scientist had wandered off to - a simple study with several bookshelves and a wooden desk next to one of the walls - they held out a pin to Kit.

“It’s a charm,” they explained, moving to pin it onto Kit’s cardigan. “This one in particular takes any magic ability you have and enhances it, so it doesn’t take as much effort to use your magic.”

“You think I can do magic?” Kit asked, feeling the charm between their fingers.

“You were wearing this when we found you. I assume it came in handy at some point, although who knows what kind of magic you can do? Maybe you’ll be surprised."

“Aren’t you supposed to be a _scientist_?” the alchemist asked, the smirk on her lips suggesting that they’d also had this conversation before. “You know. Someone who does _science_. Not _magic_.”

“Just because magic ain’t my cup of tea, doesn’t mean I don’t know about it,” the scientist fired back. “People can do what they want, as long as they don’t hurt anyone along the way, that’s what I think.”

The atmosphere of the room seemed to shift at that, the smirk on the alchemist’s face fading away as she nodded in understanding. Kit looked between the two, feeling as if they were missing something.

“You _would_ think that, huh?” she said. “Well, can’t say I don’t agree. C’mon, Kit. We’ve still got more to see!”

“Um.” Kit looked back to the scientist, who was fiddling with something on the desk. It looked like a photo frame of some sort. When they caught their gaze, the scientist smiled reassuringly.

“What’s that look for? I’m all good,” they said, waving them off. “Go on and keep looking around. I’ll join you at dinner.”

Kit nodded, walking to catch up to the alchemist who, in contrast to earlier, was almost buzzing where she stood.

“Kit! You’re gonna love the next room! D’you like eggs?”

~

“What’cha got there, Kit?”

Leaning over Kit’s shoulder, the alchemist peered at the book and pen in their hands. They had been scribbling something, deep in thought, before she’d interrupted.

“Just a journal,” Kit replied, slipping the book closed. They rubbed at their right eye, purposefully avoiding the scar that ran down their left. “Found it in the study, got told I could keep it. Thought I’d write down stuff I might need to remember, you know? Because…”

“Oh! Of course.” The alchemist walked around Kit to face them properly, a fond grin across her lips. “Smart cookie, you are. Can’t have you forgetting everything again, huh?”

“Well, it’s more for piecing stuff together?” Kit said, although they didn’t sound entirely sure of themself. The alchemist raised an eyebrow, beckoning for them to continue. “I mean, I did stuff, before I ended up here, obviously. I had a whole life that I can’t remember, and it still happened whether I remember it or not, so…”

“You wanna see if you can puzzle it out?” the alchemist supplied, earning a shrug in return. “Well, if it helps, you met _us_ before now.”

“I knew you?” Kit asked, one hand going to their pendant to fiddle with it.

“Knew _of_ , more like. We never hung out, I talked to you like...twice? Did the first time count?” She looked off to the side, distracted as she muttered to herself, trying to figure out something that Kit felt like they should know the answer to. Eventually, she shook her head and came back to the moment. “We ran into each other a couple of times. First time I met you, you were staying in this treehouse with these people who have been our friendly rivals for _ages_.”

She seemed to be rambling, not quite paying attention to what she was saying, and Kit opened up their journal as curiosity struck. “They didn’t like you?”

“Mate, you looked so confused, ‘specially when they started shouting, it was priceless.” She was giggling to herself now, not noticing the way Kit stopped watching her and started focusing on their book. “And- and the dude dragged you away, like some _child_ , it was...um…”

When she trailed off, Kit looked up to see the alchemist looking hesitant, as if she’d said something she ought to have not. “It was what?”

She turned back to them, almost as if she’d forgotten Kit was there. “I, uh...maybe I shouldn’t tell you. It’s a long and complicated story, and I’m not...the _best_ storyteller, y’know? I don’t know much of what happened, anyway.” At Kit’s crestfallen look, she sighed. “Look, go ask professor-science-is-life sometime, they can explain things much better than I can. ‘Sides, I gotta get back to my work.”

With that, she bounded away, throwing a quick “Have fun with your book!” over her shoulder as she went, and Kit only stared after her in confusion. So there was something that had happened, people they’d known who didn’t get along and somehow they’d got stuck in the middle of it.

Looks like the journal will come in more handy than they originally thought.

~

Kit was poking at a small, broken-looking robot sitting on the coffee table when the scientist found them.

“Kit! There you are!” they said, as if they had been looking for a while and not known that Kit spent most of their time lounging around the sitting room of the lab. “I just finished up a project and...well, wanna try it out with me? I think it’ll be something you’ll like.”

“Really?” Kit picked up the robot and stood it back up on the table, making sure it was balanced before turning back to the scientist. “Um. Okay then.”

“Great!” They beckoned for Kit to follow, walking out of the lounge and towards the elevator. “Are you interested in that little fellow, by the way? I’ve been meaning to fix it up, but with this project I’ve had my hands full. I could probably set you up with the stuff to fix it.”

“The robot?” Kit thought about it as they entered the elevator and the scientist pressed the button to a floor they hadn’t seen yet. “I mean, it looks cool. Don’t know anything about science, though.”

“Don’t let that stop you,” the scientist said. “It’s easy enough, and it’s not like you’re building a whole new robot, just fixing a broken one. Most of the parts are there already. And I know for a fact you’re not doing much at the moment.”

“Oh. Um.” Kit flushed at the callout, fiddling with their pendant. They’d only been at the lab for a few days, but all they really did was wander around the bottom floor, eat in the kitchen and watch the pair work away. They didn’t understand any of what either of them were doing - the alchemist was always too concentrated on what she was doing to explain, and when the scientist tried to help Kit understand, all the lengthy words only made them more confused - so most of the time they felt bored and not-useful. Maybe fixing up a robot would add a little spark to their day. “Maybe? Sure.”

“Awesome.” The elevator dinged then, signalling their arrival, and the scientist wandered out and down the corridor with ease, as if the whole building wasn’t a massive confusing maze. Kit trailed behind, glancing through the windows of several rooms around them to try and make out what was inside (they couldn’t even _guess_ most of it), until the scientist held a keycard to a scanner and a pair of metal doors slid open in front of them.

This room was much bigger than any room on the bottom floor height-wise - the walls climbed up to a ceiling that looked like the top of the entire building, windows cut into the walls at certain intervals. It looked like somebody had tried to build a section of the lab but forgot to put the floors in.

The scientist chuckled as Kit stared at the space above them. “Cool, right? This is the biggest room in the whole lab.”

“It better be,” Kit breathed out, spinning around to get a look at the whole room. They didn’t know what the pair would need _two_ building-height mostly-empty rooms for.

A couple of clicks could be heard behind them, and Kit turned to look as the hiss of something opening sounded out. The scientist was reaching into a cabinet in the wall, sifting around. “Well, believe me when I say this is cooler.” They took out what they’d been searching for then; it looked heavy, not enough to be impossible to carry, but it obviously took effort to hold.

“Voila!” the scientist said, presenting the object. When Kit got a closer look, they thought it looked like a metal backpack with two big cylinders attached on the sides. There were also two handles sticking out past the straps, one with a button on it. “I’ve been working on this for at least two months now. C’mere.”

“What is it?” Kit asked as they walked towards the scientist, still studying the metal object. They slipped their arms through the straps when the scientist beckoned for them to do so, shifting as the weight settled on their shoulders. It wasn’t as heavy as they had thought it was, although the handles stuck out awkwardly from under their arms.

“It’s a jetpack, dear Kit,” the scientist replied, and they looked so giddy and proud about it that Kit couldn’t help but smile. “The scientific way to fly! Man, I’ve been wanting to make this for so long…”

Kit let their hands rest on the handles, feeling the one in their right hand shift slightly. In curiosity, they tried moving it, and then yelped as they felt the two cylinders shift with their motion.

“That’s how you steer it!” the scientist exclaimed. “The button is to get the engines started, that’s what’ll actually propel you up, and the joystick lets you change direction. But don’t- maybe don’t press the button yet, not when you don’t know what you’re doing…and, uh, maybe get behind this yellow line.” With that, the scientist wandered over to a control panel next to the door, which had closed some time ago, and typed something in. A second later there was a clunk, and suddenly Kit was scrambling back behind the yellow line as the floor started to slide open beneath them (because apparently everything slid open in this place). Underneath was a large tank of water, probably deep enough to reach the floor of the building - and they were about five floors up.

“What…” Kit shuffled towards the edge of the platform they were standing on, peering down into the tank.

“Safety precaution. This way, you won’t get hurt if you fall, you know?”

Kit gulped. The room was tall, they’d never done anything like this before, and they’d read in one of the scientist’s books that hitting water from a height felt like hitting concrete. To say they were nervous was an understatement. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. I tried this earlier, Kit, it’s completely fine as long as you don’t forget how everything works.” The scientist smiled as they pat Kit’s shoulder, and Kit had to wonder if they knew that they hadn’t been too reassuring. Still, they listened as the scientist explained how everything worked, nodding along as they were instructed on how to go up and down and bounce in the air “because there was no easy way to get it to hover, unfortunately.” Some parts went a bit over their head, but the scientist insisted that they would be fine.

And it _was_ fine, with the ascent going smoothly and changing direction being easier than they anticipated, but then Kit found themself bouncing in the air as they eyed the ground warily, knowing they were supposed to come down.

“You’ll be fine, Kit!” the scientist shouted up to them. “The water will catch you! Just let yourself fall!”

“I don’t wanna!” Kit shouted back, accidentally rising a bit higher as they held the button for too long. They were getting used to flying up and down as a substitute to hovering, although nerves made it harder than it needed to be.

“Take it slow!” the scientist said. “Just a little further down each time, okay?”

Kit did as they were told, letting go of the button for a little longer than usual - but then they panicked, not used to the growing speed, and they started up the pattern of up-and-down again to the point where no progress seemed to have been made at all.

The scientist sighed, watching them. “Kit…”

“I know, I know! I’m sorry! I’m trying!”

“Listen to me, Kit!” The scientist eyed the water, knowing it was completely safe and that Kit was in absolutely no danger - although it did seem to be almost reaching up towards the kid, as if preparing to catch them. Maybe they were seeing things. “Kit, do you trust me?”

“...What?”

“Do you trust me?” they pressed, stepping up to the edge of the tank. Kit hesitated, watching them, heart still beating out of their chest as they considered their options.

“...Sure,” they eventually settled on, not noticing the way the water seemed to be jumping out of the tank, as if trying to snag at their feet. The odd flicker of the water caught the scientist’s eye - but they figured that there were more pressing matters at the moment.

“Then let go of the button.”

And with a final intake of breath, Kit put their faith in the scientist and dropped.

~

Kit looked at the cheese toastie they were eating in confusion.

Half an hour ago, they had wandered into the kitchen in the middle of their robot-repair session with the intention of making themself a quick sandwich for lunch. Now, with a freshly-grilled toastie in hand and some definitely-not-burned sandwich machine instructions lying on the kitchen counter, they really had to wonder what had happened to bring them here.

The alchemist didn’t seem to mind, happily munching away on her own cheese toastie as she chatted with Kit.

“Someone made lunch? Sweet.” The scientist entered then, probably lured by the smell of slightly-burned cheese, then stopped when they saw the now-empty machine. “Um?”

“Sorry, mate, only makes two,” the alchemist said through a mouthful of toastie, completely unapologetic. “Make your own or get here earlier next time.”

Punching her lightly in the arm, the scientist grinned. “Ah, whatever. Sandwiches are better anyway.” They moved around the kitchen, probably intent on making themself a sandwich, and glanced at Kit as they did so. The kid (or teen, they were definitely at least sixteen, but it wasn’t like they’d know for sure) had half their attention on their toastie and half on the notebook they carried around everywhere, scanning through some of the words.

“By the way, Kit,” the scientist started, catching their attention, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you about.”

“Oh. Uh...me too, actually.” They closed their book, turning to the scientist, and out of the corner of their good eye, they could see the alchemist giving them a knowing look. “You go first, though.”

“Right.” Putting down the butter knife in their hand, the scientist started to fiddle with a packet of ham. “Have you ever considered the fact that you might have some kind of...water magic?”

“Huh?” Kit stared wide-eyed at the scientist, and even the alchemist looked up, confused. “Why would I...well, no, I guess. What?”

The scientist replaced the packet of ham with some lettuce, casually building their sandwich even though they were being stared at in complete confusion. “When we tested the jetpack, and you were over the water, I noticed it moving a lot. Usually that’s normal, but it was...going towards you? As if it was reaching out? Instead of being blasted away, which is...not normal, to put it simply. I just wanted to know if you were aware-”

“I wasn’t,” Kit said.

“How d’you know for sure that was Kit?” the alchemist asked, still chewing through her toastie. “Maybe it was a side effect of your jetpack contraption, you know? Like that time you made a giant hole in the west wing-”

“That was an accident and we agreed to never mention it again.” The alchemist stuck out her tongue at them. “And that water trick isn’t possible - physically, I mean. This is one of those times where science is going to have to take the backseat and let magic take the reins.”

“So I have water magic?” Kit asked, swallowing the last bit of their toastie. “Are you sure? I don’t feel like…”

“Well, we can test it, can’t we?” the scientist suggested. They took a bite out of their finished sandwich and strolled over to the sink, turning the tap on with a flick of their wrist. “That’s how we do it in the science world - we test hypotheses.”

Looking at the gentle stream of water through narrowed eyes, Kit sighed. “I don’t know how to-”

“That’s okay,” the scientist interrupted them. “That’s how magic usually feels at first. Not that I’d know much, but…” They trailed off for a second. “Just...whatever feels natural, do it. It’ll come to you.”

Still staring at the water, Kit tried to concentrate. For some reason, they felt as if they wouldn’t be able to move the water with just their eyes; how they figured this out, they didn’t know, but they lifted their right hand anyway and faced their palm to the stream. It didn’t feel like anything was happening, but then-

The scientist gasped. “It’s moving!” they whispered, astonished. “It’s- you’re bending the water flow, look!”

Some sort of tingle went up Kit’s arm then, like a soft pins-and-needles in their palm, and without thinking they shifted their arm and flicked their wrist away from the sink - and with their arm went the water.

“Woah!” The alchemist dodged out of the way as a small spray of water jumped away from the sink and to the kitchen floor. Kit gasped, looking between the water on the floor and the now-normal stream coming from the tap, their arm still held out in front of them.

“Um...Sorry.”

“Oh. My god.” The alchemist brushed at a stray bit of water on her overcoat. “That was so cool! Kit! This is awesome!”

“This is...incredible, Kit,” the scientist agreed. The kid merely looked at their hands sheepishly as the alchemist basically bounced in her spot.

“Can you make water? Like out of thin air?”

Kit looked at the alchemist, slightly overwhelmed and not exactly knowing what was going on. “I...I can...cry?”

“You’re could be like one of those ‘child-of-the-sea’ people,” the alchemist continued, ignoring Kit as she hopped up to sit on the kitchen counter. “Like, they’ve got an affinity for water, they thrive in the sea and are the best swimmers and it’s honestly so cool-”

“Those stories only exist because we have salt in our blood,” the scientist said matter-of-factly. “Personally, I prefer the thought that because we also have iron in our blood, we’re all made of stardust.”

“Yeah, well, you keep studying your stars and me and Kit will enjoy our time as ocean children.”

“I kinda like the stars, though,” Kit interjected, not paying much attention. Their right hand was out again, gently shifting left and right and watching the stream follow along, their other hand holding onto their pendant. It was...weird, knowing they were the one causing it to move this way, but it was also quite empowering.

A distant part of them, for some reason, was terrified.

“Ha! I win.”

“This wasn’t a competition-”

“Well, you sure made it sound like one!”

“What? No, I- whatever, I gotta get back to work.” With that, the alchemist jumped off the counter and made for the door.

“How long have you been working for?” the scientist asked, light concern lacing their voice.

The alchemist waved her hand, dismissing them. “I took a break.”

“Yeah, but you need to-” They were cut off by the door swinging closed and the sound of footsteps quickly getting quieter. With a sigh, they chewed on another bite of their sandwich and turned back to Kit, who was now reaching out to turn off the tap. “Well. That girl wouldn’t know self-care if it knocked on her door and forced her to sleep. Never mind, then.”

“What’s she trying to do, anyway?” Kit asked. “I still don’t get it.”

“Alchemy,” the scientist replied, as if that would help in the slightest. “She’s managed to figure out how to make the _wrong metal_ and doesn’t know where to go next. Oh well.” They chewed thoughtfully. “Anyway, you said you had something to ask me?”

“Oh, um…” Kit looked at the closed tap, then their discarded notebook, and hesitated. “I...think I can leave it for now. Don’t worry about it.”

The scientist was looking really relaxed and happy at the moment anyway. They didn’t want to break that right now.

~

“Have you actually been outside at all in the past two weeks, Kit?”

“...I’m allowed to do that?”

A beat of silence passed.

“Of course you’re allowed,” the alchemist said incredulously. “You- mate, we’re not keeping you _captive_ here.”

“Oh.” Tapping their screwdriver against the robot, Kit considered this new information. “Uh...no, I haven’t.”

“Unbelievable.” She tutted, striding forward and grabbing Kit by the arm, effectively pulling them away from their work. “Kit, mate, you’re almost as bad as me!”

“I didn’t- I didn’t know!” Kit protested, letting themself get hoisted up and dragged out of the room.

“Well, you’re coming with me today, and we’re gonna get some sunlight on that face of yours, ya hear?”

“What are we going to do?” Kit asked, lightly pulling their arm out of the alchemist’s grip as they walked beside her. She merely shrugged, humming a bit to herself as they reached the lab door and she punched in the code to open it.

“Go to the village, trade, hang out a bit, whatever. We gotta get food and other important stuff. And _you_ need to go outside.”

Slowly, like flat metal curtains, the front door of the lab slid open, and Kit shielded their good eye as sunlight finally hit their face directly. Outside the sky was clear, the grass greener and the trees darker than what they had seen through the filtered windows; they were surprised to notice that the forest outside the lab stretched on much farther than they thought. A worn down, rocky path lay ahead of them, curving to the left of the forest and disappearing over a hill, and the alchemist grinned wide as Kit took in their surroundings.

“Well, Kit,” she started, heading off down the path at a leisurely backwards stroll as she watched them. “Ready to see the rest of Soktropica?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, cool, I gotta plan the next two chapters out now, see you in another two months.
> 
> Okay but seriously, I'm gonna be introducing quite a few more characters soon, just you wait. We get to visit the rest of Soktropica!
> 
> AND if you look close enough, you'll find that another 'story' has been added to this series - 'Kit's Journal'! Basically I've written down the things that I think Kit would have written in their little journal, go check it out, there's gonna be name reveals for all the characters in there as well, so it's quite important.

**Author's Note:**

> Mobiss = "Mage's Old Battered Incredible Stabbing Sword"


End file.
